The book of revelation for dummies

A widening gap between Jews and Christians...31 Growing persecution of Christians ...31 Playing the Dating Game ...34 The rebel rousin’ 60’s...35 Hip hoppin’ in the 90’s ...36 Unraveling

by Larry R Helyer, PhD, and Richard Wagner

The Book of Revelation

FOR

www.TheGetAll.com

by Larry R Helyer, PhD, and Richard Wagner

The Book of Revelation

FOR

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About the Authors

Dr Larry R Helyer: Larry is Professor of Biblical Studies at Taylor University

in Upland, Indiana He received his doctorate in New Testament from FullerTheological Seminary, Pasadena, California He pastored Baptist churches inPortland, Oregon, and Sun Valley, California, before moving to the Midwestand teaching biblical studies at Taylor University for 28 years He has taught

a wide range of Bible courses covering both the Old and New Testaments andJewish literature of the Second Temple Larry has traveled extensively in theland of the Bible and lived in Israel for a year during his student days atJerusalem University College

Larry is author of two books, Yesterday, Today, and Forever: The Continuing

Relevance of the Old Testament and Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period: A Guide for New Testament Students Larry has authored

numerous journal and dictionary articles on biblical and theological subjectsand has just finished a book on New Testament theology He was the initial

translator of 2 Samuel for the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Richard Wagner: Rich is author of The Expeditionary Man, The Myth of

Happiness, The Gospel Unplugged, and several For Dummies books, including

C S Lewis & Narnia For Dummies, Christianity For Dummies, and Christian Prayer For Dummies He has been a guest on Christian radio programs across

the country discussing Christian discipleship issues as well as C.S Lewis.Richard has served in church leadership and teaching roles for more than adozen years

Rich graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Taylor University andpursued graduate studies at The American University in Washington, DC.Rich lives in New England with his wife and three sons You can find himonline at richwagnerwords.com

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Dedication

Larry dedicates this book in memory of his mother, Hazel M Helyer (1916–2000).Her love for the Bible, large portions of which she knew from memory, left alegacy far beyond what she could have imagined

Rich also dedicates the book to his mother, Carolyn, for her lifelong testimony

of Jesus Christ as well as her tireless, selfless example of living as a disciple

Authors’ Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the helpful people at Wiley Publishing who shepherded

us through this entire process Their expertise and encouragement made thisbook possible Special thanks go to our indefatigable project editor, StephenClark, and our most congenial and efficient acquisitions editor, LindsayLefevere Stephen’s many, helpful suggestions and comments — and timelyencouragement — greatly improved this book Danielle Voirol, our sharp-eyedand savvy copy editor, and our two technical editors, Dr Robert Berg andRev Ken Cavanagh, saved us from more mistakes than we’d like to admit Inshort, we’re better writers because of this collaboration

We’re grateful to our literary agent, Matt Wagner, for his efficient handling ofcontract, schedule, and financial matters

Finally, we acknowledge our indebtedness to former teachers, biblical ars, colleagues, friends, and fellow travelers on the way to the New

schol-Jerusalem Their contributions are too numerous to list May they all join infor the final chorus: “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on thethrone, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:10)

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction 1

Part I: Revealing the End of the Biblical Story 9

Chapter 1: One Man’s Visions, All Humans’ Fate 11

Chapter 2: Setting the Stage: The Apostle John and the World in Which He Lived 23

Chapter 3: The Prequels: Prophecies throughout the Bible 43

Part II: Interpreting the Book of Revelation 61

Chapter 4: Choosing a Perspective for Understanding Revelation 63

Chapter 5: Deciphering Symbols with Your Secret Decoder Ring 87

Part III: Taking a Grand Tour of the Book of Revelation 99

Chapter 6: Setting Up the Scope of the Book (1:1–20) 101

Chapter 7: Reading the Seven Letters to Conflicted Churches (1:19–3:22) 119

Chapter 8: Peeking into the Throne Room (4:1–5:14) 143

Chapter 9: Breaking Seven Seals (6:1–8:1) 159

Chapter 10: Sounding Seven Trumpets (8:2–11:19) 181

Chapter 11: A Woman, a Dragon, Two Beasts, and More! (12:1–14:20) .205

Chapter 12: Seven Angels, Seven Bowls, and a Final Smackdown (15:1–18:24) 227

Chapter 13: Coming of the Kingdom (19:1–20:15) 251

Chapter 14: Seeing the New Jerusalem and a Triumphant Church (21:1–22:6) 273

Chapter 15: Promising to Return (22:6–21) 291

Part IV: The Part of Tens 303

Chapter 16: Ten Common Questions about the End Times 305

Chapter 17: Ten Tips for Interpreting Scripture and Prophecy 313

Appendix: Glossary 319

Index 325

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Conventions Used in This Book 2

Apocalypse 2

Bible references 2

Christianity 3

Dates 3

Names of God 3

Prophecy and prophesying 4

Formatting 4

What You’re Not to Read 4

Foolish Assumptions 5

How This Book Is Organized 5

Part I: Revealing the End of the Biblical Story 5

Part II: Interpreting the Book of Revelation 5

Part III: Taking a Grand Tour of the Book of Revelation 6

Part IV: The Part of Tens 6

Icons Used in This Book 6

Where to Go from Here 7

Part I: Revealing the End of the Biblical Story 9

Chapter 1: One Man’s Visions, All Humans’ Fate 11

Why Read Revelation, Anyway? 12

Taking a Whirlwind Tour through Revelation 12

Introduction (Rev 1) 13

Letters to the seven churches of Asia (Rev 2–3) 15

Judgments and vignettes (Rev 4–20) 15

New beginnings (Rev 21–22:6) 17

Epilogue (Rev 22:7–21) 17

Monitoring the Book’s Timeline 19

And then some: Interpreting transition phrases 20

Parallelism: Watching things go down at the same time 21

Chapter 2: Setting the Stage: The Apostle John and the World in Which He Lived 23

ID-ing John Doe, Author of Revelation 24

Doubting the Apostle John’s authorship 25

Defending the Apostle John as author 26

Understanding the Troubled Times in Which John Lived 28

Increasing Roman domination: Rise of the emperor-gods 28

Jewish population fleeing ancient Palestine 31

A widening gap between Jews and Christians 31

Growing persecution of Christians 31

Playing the Dating Game 34

The rebel rousin’ 60’s 35

Hip hoppin’ in the 90’s 36

Unraveling Revelation’s Textured Style of Writing 38

Revelation as epistle 38

Revelation as apocalyptic literature 39

Revelation as prophecy 40

Revelation as extraordinarily inspired 41

Chapter 3: The Prequels: Prophecies throughout the Bible 43

Understanding the Old Testament Backdrop to Revelation 43

Peeking into Old Testament Prophecy 46

Isaiah 47

Ezekiel 48

Daniel 49

Zechariah 50

Jeremiah 50

Joel 51

Examining the 70 Weeks of Daniel 9 51

Having a long week: The dispensationalist view 52

Seeing time as relative: The traditional view 54

Avoiding the future: The critical view 55

Exploring the Olivet Discourse: Jesus’s Prophecy 55

Noting the signs of the times 56

Witnessing Jesus’s (second) big entrance 57

Keeping your guard up 58

Considering the “generation” gap 58

Part II: Interpreting the Book of Revelation 61

Chapter 4: Choosing a Perspective for Understanding Revelation 63

Solving the Revelation Puzzle: Four Solutions throughout History 64

Early church views 65

The Middle Ages and Renaissance 65

Into the modern era 66

Futurist: Events Will Take Place at a Moment’s Notice 68

Various futurist perspectives 70

Examining the futurist approach 72

Historicist: Covering the Entire History of the Church 73

The basic approach 73

Examining the historicist approach 74

Preterist: Explaining Historical Events from the First Century 75

Various preterist perspectives 76

Examining the preterist approach 77

Idealist: Identifying Themes, Not Literal Events 78

Various idealist perspectives 79

Examining the idealist approach 79

What’s Your Angle? Evaluating the Four Approaches 80

Prophecy fulfillment: Literal or symbolic? 81

Are we there yet? or, How soon is “soon”? 83

Who is John really writing to? 83

Was first-century persecution really that bad? 84

Finding common ground 85

Chapter 5: Deciphering Symbols with Your Secret Decoder Ring 87

Giving John’s Readers a Heads-up 87

Why Use Symbols? 88

Following biblical tradition 89

Adding greater meaning than plain text 89

Getting people’s attention 90

Reinforcing unity 90

Keeping some secrets 91

Understanding Common Interpretations 92

Discovering the meaning of the major symbols 92

Assembling the cast of characters 96

Part III: Taking a Grand Tour of the Book of Revelation 99

Chapter 6: Setting Up the Scope of the Book (1:1–20) 101

Declassified! Releasing God’s Secrets in the Apocalyptic Press 101

Touring God’s headquarters and giving away the ending 102

Choosing sides: Dualism 102

Being encouraged to stick with it 103

Probing the Prologue (1:1–3) 104

Unveiling the good guy 104

Checking out John’s sources 105

Receiving blessings 106

Saluting the Saints in Asia (1:4–6) 106

From John with love: Revelation’s writer 106

To whom it may concern: The recipients 107

Heaven says hello: Passing on the greeting 107

Singing Jesus’s praises: Doxology 109

Sounding the Theme (1:7–8) 110

Initiating the Visions (1:9–11) 110

John’s location 111

The significance of John’s self-ID 111

Occasion 112

Angelic orders 112

Seeing the First and the Last (1:12–18) 113

Standing among seven menorahs 113

Meeting Jesus face to face 115

Charting the Course (1:19–20) 116

Getting a commission to write 117

Decoding the mystery of the stars 117

Chapter 7: Reading the Seven Letters to Conflicted Churches (1:19–3:22) 119

The Symmetry of the Messages 120

Surveying the structure of each letter 120

Considering the order of the messages 122

Asking about the Audience 122

Angels: Postmen or guardians? 123

The seven churches: Real or symbolic? 124

Getting to Know the Seven Churches Up Close and Personal 125

Ephesus: Down on love (2:1–7) 127

Smyrna: Faithful under fire (2:8–11) 128

Pergamum: Compromising convictions (2:12–17) 130

Thyatira: Dirty dancing with Jezebel (2:18–29) 133

Sardis: Sleepwalkers in the city (3:1–6) 135

Philadelphia: Holding on ’til the end (3:7–13) 138

Laodicea: Don’t drink the water! (3:14–22) 140

Chapter 8: Peeking into the Throne Room (4:1–5:14) 143

Focusing on the “Someone” on the Throne (4:1–11) 144

Seeing who takes the seat 145

Debating when believers go up, up, and away 145

Circling the throne 149

An ode to the one on the throne 152

Singing Praise to the Lamb with Scroll-Opening Skills (5:1–14) 153

Examining a mysterious scroll 153

Not your ordinary lamb 156

Chapter 9: Breaking Seven Seals (6:1–8:1) 159

Unsealing the Beginning of the End 160

Exploring the relationship of the three series of sevens 160

Breaking the seals to gain access to the scroll 162

Scoping out the seven seals 162

Comparing notes with Jesus 163

The First Four Seals: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (6:1–8) 164

White horse and rider with a bow 165

Red horse and rider who removes peace 166

Black horse and rider with a pair of scales 166

Pale green horse and Death and Hades 167

The Fifth seal: The blood of martyrs (6:9–11) 169

The Sixth Seal: The Day of the Lord Has Come! (6:12–17) 170

Like Old (Testament) times: Going back to the Day of the Lord 171

In with the New (Testament): Looking to the Day of the Lamb 172

Pausing for Effect (7:1–17) 173

Surveying the survivors 174

Identifying the 144,000 175

Observing the multitude standing before the throne 177

The Seventh Seal: Silence in Heaven (8:1–5) 178

Chapter 10: Sounding Seven Trumpets (8:2–11:19) 181

Previewing the Seven Trumpets 182

Preceding the trumpets: Silence and prayer 183

Making a stormy appearance 183

Paralleling the plagues of Egypt 184

Admitting problems of interpretation 185

Honing in on the horns of old 186

The First Four Trumpets: Fire, Blood, and Hail 187

Trumpet 1: Plague on the land 188

Trumpet 2: Plague on the high seas 188

Trumpet 3: Plague on fresh water 189

Trumpet 4: Plague on sources of light 189

Wailing the Woes of the Last Three Trumpets 190

Trumpet 5: Demonic locust plague 190

Trumpet 6: Demonic cavalry 192

Trumpet 7: Not just yet 194

The First Interlude: The Angel and the Little Scroll 194

Looking at a mighty angel 194

Tasting a bittersweet book 196

The Second Interlude: Two Star Witnesses in Jerusalem 197

Measuring the Temple 198

Deciphering who or what the witness are 199

A rising beast, raptured witnesses, and a deadly earthquake 201

Beginning of the End: The Seventh Trumpet 202

Chapter 11: A Woman, a Dragon, Two Beasts, and More! (12:1–14:20) 205

Heavenly Drama: The Dragon Falls, the Woman Is Saved (12:1–17) 205

Meeting the cast of characters .206

Unpacking the plot and viewing the action 210

Two Beasty Boys Join the Dragon to Make Their Mark (13:1–18) 213

Monster mash: The Antichrist, beast of the sea 214

Head of PR: The false prophet, beast from inner earth 216

Beastly markings: 666 217

The Lamb and the 144,000 (14:1–5) 220

Three Angels with Three Messages (14:6–13) 222

Proclaiming an eternal gospel 222

Proclaiming the fall of Babylon 222

Proclaiming a warning with assurance 223

Harvesting and the Grapes of Wrath (14:14–20) 224

Reaping the earth 224

Treading the grapes (of wrath) 225

Battle-spilled blood as high as a bridle 226

Chapter 12: Seven Angels, Seven Bowls,

and a Final Smackdown (15:1–18:24) 227

A Preamble to God’s Final Wrath (15:1–8) 228

Preparing for the end 228

Fulfilling two covenants 229

Clearing out of the Temple 231

Pouring Out the Seven Bowls (16:1–21) 232

Interpreting the bowls: Four views 232

Checking out the bowls’ contents 234

But First, a Word from Our End-Times Sponsor, the Lamb (16:15) 238

Exposing the Mystery of Babylon the Great (17:1–18) 239

Calling her names: Harlot on seven hills 239

Turning on her: The beast bites back 244

Loveless in the Ruins: Celebrating Babylon’s Fall (18:1–24) 244

Singing stinging sarcasm 246

Fleeing the scene to safety 247

Shedding no tears for the fallen 248

Reeling from markets’ collapse: Goods gone bad 248

Ding-dong! The witch is dead! 249

Chapter 13: Coming of the Kingdom (19:1–20:15) 251

Returning as Promised (19:1–21) 252

Having a roaring good time 252

Avoiding angel worship 253

Making a grand entrance 254

Picking the bones clean and taking prisoners 257

Dawning of the Millennial Age (20:1–6) 258

Seizing the dragon 258

Reigning with the Lamb 259

Letting Satan Loose (20:7–10) 260

Reverting to form 260

Googling Gog 260

Standing at the Great White Throne (20:11–15) 262

Judgment by the books 263

Termination of Death and Hades 266

Sorting Out Two Theological Issues 266

Struggling to understand hell 266

Mulling over the meaning of the Millennium 268

Chapter 14: Seeing the New Jerusalem and a Triumphant Church (21:1–22:6) 273

Exploring a New Creation (21:1–8) 273

Scrapping the old world 275

Reaching the end of the sea 275

Making a fresh start 276

Welcoming a city from the sky 277

Enjoying a new existence 282

Taking a Virtual Tour of the New Jerusalem (21:9–27) 284

Admiring the architecture: Walls, gates, and foundations 285

Considering dimensions and shape 285

Scoping out the building materials 286

Recognizing what’s not there 287

Coming Home to the Garden (22:1–6) 288

Dipping into the river of life 289

Recovering the tree of life 290

Chapter 15: Promising to Return (22:6–21) 291

Verifying the Source of the Message (22:6–8) 291

Getting to the End on Time (22:7) 292

Knocking “Other” Worship (22:8–9) 293

Leaving the Scroll Unsealed (22:10–15) 293

Making your own choices 294

Looking to an eternal judge 294

Reaping reward 295

Facing punishment: The outsiders 296

And Now, In Conclusion (22:16–21) 297

Signing the message 297

Invoking and inviting 299

Warning against tampering 300

Getting a final word from the Lamb 300

P.S Be blessed with grace! 301

Part IV: The Part of Tens 303

Chapter 16: Ten Common Questions about the End Times 305

What Does Eschatology Mean? 305

What Do the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls Symbolize? 306

What’s the Great Tribulation? 306

What’s the Rapture? 307

Who Are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? 308

Who Is the Antichrist? 309

What’s the Mark of the Beast (666)? 309

What’s the Significance of the Term Babylon? 310

What’s the Millennium? 311

What’s the Lake of Fire? 312

Chapter 17: Ten Tips for Interpreting Scripture and Prophecy 313

Don’t Depend on English Words for Sorting Out Hidden Meanings 314

Keep Verses in Context 314

Look to Other Scripture as a Guide 314

Remember the Target Audience 315

Look for the Original Meaning 315

Identify the Literary Style 316

View Fulfilled Prophecy as a Prototype 316

Don’t Try to Pin Down Timelines for Fulfillment 317

Note that Biblical Prophecy Can Have Stages of Fulfillment 317

Consider that Some Biblical Prophecy Is Conditional 317

Appendix: Glossary 319

Index 325

Introduction

Acommon cartoon theme involves a person wearing a sandwich sign orcarrying a poster that proclaims, “Repent! The end is near!” What’simplied is that some sudden, violent event is just around the corner and thatpeople need to brace themselves for whatever’s coming And usually, the endthat’s near involves something nasty, if not totally devastating

The idea of a dramatic and destructive end to the earth has been around forages It’s the stuff of some really great sci-fi movies, and a lot of the elementsthat go into these stories come right out of the Bible In fact, terms such as

repent and Antichrist and Armageddon are direct references to messages,

char-acters, and events that make up the book of Revelation When you examinethese themes and images in the context of religion, faith, and biblical history,things get even more interesting

But the book of Revelation is no easy read Some people, after sloggingthrough Revelation, seem to suffer from what we call PTRRD: Post-TraumaticRevelation Reading Disorder Maybe you’ve had this experience You startreading with a rush of enthusiasm, and all goes well through the first threechapters and their letters to the seven churches Then things start to gethairy: visions from heaven, creatures with eyes covering their bodies,plagues, horses of different colors, angels everywhere Seven seals areopened, seven trumpets are sounded, seven bowls are poured out, and thingsget really confusing Throw in grapes of wrath, red dragons, giant hail, and

something called the rapture, and, well, you get the idea Lost becomes more

than just the name of a television series — it’s the perfect descriptor of yourmental state

Our intent is to help you avoid PTRRD We act as your tour guides to helpyou navigate the amazing book of Revelation Even if you can’t figure outevery single detail, clues that open up large chunks of the text abound Wepromise you’ll come away with a better understanding of what Revelation isabout, as well as a ton of cool information that you can sprinkle into conver-sations and impress your friends!

About This Book

The first thing you may discover is that there’s no one dominant or right way

to interpret the book of Revelation About the only thing all serious students

of Revelation can agree on is that in the end, good wins over evil Theologicalviews about what happens, when it happens, and to whom it happens vary

widely In The Book of Revelation For Dummies, we introduce the leading

views and point you to some of the most likely meanings

Revelation is arguably the most perplexing book in all the Bible, so our goal is to be clear and concise Therefore, we aim for an easy-to-understand,approachable discussion, without trying to bombard you with a lot of theological gobbledygook

The topics in the book are logically ordered, so you can read from start tofinish if you want to But this is a reference book, so don’t feel you have toread it from cover to cover You may prefer to browse the Table of Contents,flip through the pages, or thumb through the index to locate a topic that youfind particularly engaging

Conventions Used in This Book

To make sure you get the most out of this book, keep the following tions and definitions in mind

conven-Apocalypse

The word apocalypse has become associated with a devastating event,

including the end of the world But the term actually means “to unveil” or

“to reveal.” And so, Revelation is a revealing (apocalypse) of the biblical view

of how all things come to an end People often refer to any literature that

addresses the end of the world as apocalyptic.

the Bible, 3 as the chapter of the book, and 16 as the verse of the chapter Ifyou don’t see a colon in a Bible reference, the number refers to an entirechapter; in other words, Rev 4–5 means chapters 4 through 5 of the book ofRevelation

When we refer to the Old Testament, we’re talking about those sacred

scrip-tures that Christianity shares with Judaism Jews refer to these scripscrip-tures

as the Tanak, or Hebrew Bible For Protestants and Jews, these scriptures

consist of the same 39 books; Catholics include several additional books,

collectively called the Apocrypha.

We occasionally refer to Jewish works that aren’t part of the Bible, such as

1 Enoch If you’re really interested in reading the book of 1 Enoch, check out

the English translation with introduction and notes by E Isaac in James H

Charlesworth, ed., Volume 1 The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalyptic

Literature & Testaments (Doubleday).

Christianity

For the purposes of this book, historical Christianity, biblical Christianity, and

orthodox Christianity are interchangeable terms Each speaks of beliefs that

the church has historically upheld for some 2,000 years Simply, Christianity

is monotheistic (believing in one God), is based on the teachings of Jesus,and embraces the entire Bible as truth

Dates

When we refer to dates, we use the newer designations BCE (before commonera) and CE (common era) rather than the more traditional BC (before

Christ) and AD (Anno Domini, in the year of the Lord) If you’re unfamiliar

with the newer terms, no sweat The year 34 BCE is the same as 34 BC, and

1050 CE is equivalent to AD 1050

Names of God

Although God has many names, we generally use God and Lord in this book.

Also, in accordance with historical usage, we use the traditional masculine

pronoun he to refer to God.

Prophecy and prophesying

People often think of prophecy as being limited to future events But from

a biblical perspective, prophecy is a noun that refers to something more

general: the act of speaking the mind and counsel of God Biblical prophetswere, in a sense, the mouthpiece of God, delivering important information

to God’s people Biblical prophecy, among other things, addressed currentevents, offered guidance on behavior, revealed elements of the character ofGod, reassured God’s people, and often predicted future events Sometimes,prophecy about the future was conditional: If bad behavior continued, badthings would happen; if behavior was brought back in line with God’s will,bad things would be averted The point is that biblically speaking, all prophesy isn’t just about foretelling the future

Note that prophesy is the verb usage of the word: Prophets prophesy

prophecy!

Formatting

In order to draw your attention to particular words and phrases, we use the following formatting conventions:

Italics highlight terms that we define.

Boldface indicates keywords in explanatory bulleted lists.

When we provide a cross-reference to another chapter within this

book, we capitalize the word Chapter before the chapter number; however, when we’re referring to a book of the Bible, the word chapter

is lowercased

What You’re Not to Read

Although we focus on what you need to know about the book of Revelation,

we also include some additional topics that, although informative, you canskip during your first read-through of the book These include sidebars, theshaded boxes that show up every so often throughout the book Sidebarsdeal with subjects related to the chapter, but they aren’t necessary reading.You can also bypass text with a Technical Stuff icon beside it — this icon indi-cates technical, theological, or historical bits of info that’s helpful but moreadvanced If your eyes start to glaze over in reading them, you can pass overthem without missing the basics

How This Book Is Organized

The Book of Revelation For Dummies is divided into four parts Here’s a

glimpse of each one

Part I: Revealing the End

of the Biblical Story

Part I begins with an overview of Revelation and its major themes, sidedetours, and often-confusing symbolism You then explore who the book’sauthor is and when he likely wrote it Rounding out the discussion, Part Ihelps you better understand the prophecy of Revelation by diving into the

Old Testament prophetic writings and exploring the characteristics of

apoca-lyptic literature, a genre of Jewish and Christian literature that claims to

fore-tell catastrophic events that’ll transpire during the last days of the world

Part II: Interpreting the Book of Revelation

In Part II, we introduce you to the sticky topic of interpreting Revelation

Within the Christian church, four views on how to understand Revelationhave been long dominant We explain each of these perspectives and com-pare and contrast them, noting their strengths and weaknesses After that, webegin to show you how to make sense of all the symbolism that runs through-out the book’s 22 chapters

Part III: Taking a Grand Tour

of the Book of Revelation

Part III is, in many ways, the heart of this book In it, we take you on a guidedexpedition through each and every chapter of Revelation We identify the keythemes and explain the likely meaning of the underlying symbolism along the way

Part IV: The Part of Tens

In the final part, we explain ten confusing terms that often stymie peoplewhen they read Revelation We then give you ten practical tips to think about when you’re reading and studying Revelation and the Bible as a whole

A glossary of terms follows the Tens chapters for easy reference

Icons Used in This Book

The icons in this book help you quickly identify specific kinds of informationthat may be of use to you:

The Remember icon highlights important ideas for you to keep in mind todeepen your understanding of Revelation

This icon draws attention to important points that help you make sense ofRevelation’s prophecy

Steer clear of the pitfalls we flag in the Warning paragraphs

The Technical Stuff icon indicates more-advanced or scholarly informationabout the topic being discussed It’s useful but not essential for an overallunderstanding of the discussion

Where to Go from Here

Now that you’re at the end of the introduction, you have your boarding passand are ready to begin your travel into the apocalyptical world of Revelation

You have several routes to choose from as you begin your trip:

If you’re interested in reading the book from cover to cover, turn thepage and proceed to Chapter 1

If you’d like to know who this guy called John is (who wrote the book),

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Revealing the End

of the Biblical Story

In this part

The book of Revelation may be about the “end of allthings,” but we have to start somewhere This partgets your apocalyptic feel wet, so to speak, by introducingyou to the book’s author, the original recipients of thebook, and the world in which it was written

After you’ve immersed your feet in the waters aroundPatmos (where the author wrote the book), you’re ready

to dive into biblical prophecy, which is essential to a solidunderstanding of the symbolism in Revelation We introduceyou to biblical prophecy, taking it step-by-step so you don’tget the bends After that, we provide a first look atRevelation, giving an overview of the book’s structure andtimeline So come on in, the water’s fine though we doseem to recall a certain beast that may be lurking in thesea! (But you have to wait for Revelation 13 for that.)

Understanding why Revelation is important

Getting a big-picture look at Revelation

Discovering the five natural divisions of the book

Looking for clues to the chronology

Many people love fantasy stories populated with strange apparitions.Others love a good mystery And still others love an adventure storyfull of action and battle scenes If you fall into one of those camps, you’re inluck The book of Revelation is all these and more

But Revelation is a challenging book Those fantastic beasts and creaturesare symbols for individuals, nations, governments, and the like The storyline

of the book twists and turns in on itself, not following a straight, chronologicalnarrative And the whole package is a prophetic vision that’s related to what’sactually supposed to happen when the world comes to an end, at least from abiblical perspective

This chapter doesn’t try to explore the symbolism behind the events that arechronicled throughout Revelation (we save that for Chapter 5) It also doesn’tpore over the details of these events, personalities, and issues (that’s what’sPart III is all about) In this chapter, we get you started in the right direction

We begin by painting broad strokes of the structure and content of the finalbook of the Bible As we do so, we point you to parts of this book where youcan find more details on each specific subject

Why Read Revelation, Anyway?

Humans have always had an insatiable curiosity to know their future andwhat’s going to happen in the “last days.” That’s at least part of the reason

the Left Behind series was popular and why new Nostradamus documentaries

show up almost every year For many, the appeal in reading and ing Revelation is, quite frankly, not altogether different from the desire topeek into a fortuneteller’s crystal ball Understanding how it all ends can giveyou a sense of what your purpose is now

understand-Revelation can be tough going because of its structure and symbolism andthe many ways in which scholars interpret the book You can easily becomediscouraged and wonder why you should read Revelation, anyway Here areseveral reasons many people consider Revelation to be essential reading:

 It helps explain the biblical view of God and his relationship with

humans Many people turn to Revelation in search of definitive answers

about what will happen But Revelation is far more about grasping thenature of God and the close relationship that exists between God andpeople who believe in him

 It gives readers a glimpse of heaven The Bible offers few specifics on

what heaven will be like The Old Testament says very little Jesus andPaul offer more in the New Testament As if saving the best for last, thefinal chapters of Revelation offer a rare glimpse into the new heaven andnew earth (see Chapter 14)

 It offers a message of hope It’s easy to be a little freaked out by the gloom

and doom warnings of the book But in spite of all of the battles and ments depicted, Revelation is really all about hope It portrays, in vividdetail, the biblical view of good triumphing over evil and suffering

judg-Taking a Whirlwind Tour through Revelation

A major challenge in reading Revelation is sorting out and identifying theoverall themes and messages while images — seals, trumpets, bowls, beasts,witnesses, and so on — are ever coming at you But if you take a step backand get a solid understanding of the big picture, you can begin to dive intothe details and make sense of how they all fit together

Although Revelation contains a lot of confusing symbolism and has manyinterpretations (see Chapter 4 for a discussion of these interpretations), thebook actually divides up rather nicely At the most basic level, you can splitRevelation into five major parts, as illustrated in Figure 1-1 We discuss each

of these parts in this section, so read on

Introduction (Rev 1)

The first chapter of Revelation serves as a prologue or introduction to theentire book Its purpose is to provide a context to help you make sense of therest of the chapters (also see Chapter 6) Within the first several verses, youdiscover that

 This is an unveiling of the plans of Jesus (from God) (1:1)

 The author is John (1:4)

 The audience is the seven churches of Asia (1:4)

 It was written on the island of Patmos, a Mediterranean island belonging

to modern-day Greece (1:9)

 Its purpose is to give readers a sneak peek of what’ll take place (1:1)

As Revelation 1:1 underscores, this book is Jesus’s revealing of God’s plansfor the world In this opening section, John provides explicit details abouthow his words came to appear in print: God gave the revelation to Jesus, whocommunicated the message to John through an angel, who was sent for thisspecific purpose John wrote these series of visions as an extended letter,which he then sent to the seven churches in Asia (Rev 2–3)

Today’s readers are a secondary audience for this book because the originalreaders passed John’s letter both to other churches and to their descen-dents Figure 1-2 shows the chain of communication

One of the keys to understanding Revelation is in 1:19 In this passage, Jesusinstructs John, “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now, and whatwill take place later.” Scholars offer various assessments on how to interpretthis verse However, the interpretation that seems to best fit the originalgrammar of the passage as well as the structure of the book itself is a three-fold timing of events: past tense, present tense, and future tense In otherwords, Jesus tells John to write about

 The vision he has already seen (Rev 1)

 The current state of the seven churches (Rev 2–3)

 The events that will take place in the future (Rev 1–22)Figure 1-3 shows how Revelation 1:19 provides a broad chronology for looking

at the entire book

22

21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Ch.

God the

OtherBelievers

SevenChuches

of Asia

Figure 1-2:

Passing onthe book ofRevelation

Judgments and vignettes (Rev 4–20)

The primary plot of Revelation 4–20 is a series of progressively severe judgmentsthat are unveiled through seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls Thesejudgments climax with the return of Jesus, the ensuing battle of Armageddon,the Millennium, and the Last Judgment (see Chapters 9–14)

As you read Revelation 4–20, don’t expect a single, linear storyline The rative includes a series of vignettes that make up a secondary plotline Thesescenes help fill in the details of the main story, but they’re not necessarily tied

nar-to the judgments that surround them As such, commentanar-tors sometimes refer

to these vignettes as parentheses, interludes, or insets.

Read on for an overview of the main plot and these interludes

The primary storyline: Judgments and the last battle

The judgments in Revelation consist of three sets of seven judgments each,symbolized by the opening of seven seals, the sounding of seven trumpets,and the pouring of seven bowls The three sets are tiered: The seals provide apartial judgment, the trumpets grow more severe, and the bowls show norestraint at all:

 Seals: Judgments begin in Revelation 6 when the Lamb (Jesus) opens

seven seals on a heavenly scroll As each seal is opened, a judgmentoccurs (see Chapter 9)

 Trumpets: As soon as Lamb opens the seventh seal, seven angels begin

to play seven trumpets in succession As each is played, a more severejudgment occurs (Chapter 10)

 Bowls: More judgments take place when seven angels pour out seven

bowls of wrath on the earth (Chapter 12)

As Figure 1-4 shows, the seals, trumpets, and bowls seem to be interrelated.Some scholars hold that the seventh seal triggers the sounding of the trum-pets (8:1), and then the seventh trumpet seems to kick off the pouring of thebowls (16:1) As Chapter 9 explores, others suggest that the judgments

happen at the same time Note: Figure 1-4 is not a timeline; it merely maps

where Revelation mentions specific events The events, in some instances,may occur simultaneously or in very rapid succession

The pouring of the final bowl sets the stage for the Second Coming of Jesus (thefirst coming was his earthly life) and the battle of Armageddon, in which Jesusleads his angelic army to victory over Satan’s forces (see Chapter 12) Satan is

bound for 1,000 years, commonly known as the Millennium (see Chapter 13).

During this time, Jesus and his faithful reign on earth At the end of this period,Satan is let loose one final time to deceive the world However, Jesus defeatsSatan again and permanently throws him into the lake of fire (Rev 20:10).Finally, Jesus judges each person Believers in Jesus — those whose namesare found in the book of life — are welcomed into heaven (see Chapter 13).Those whose names don’t make the guest list get thrown into the lake of fire(Rev 20:15)

The secondary storylines: Vignettes

Interrupting the primary narrative of Revelation is a series of vignettes thathelp form a secondary storyline Some of these interludes may be related tothe events that immediately surround them, though others seem not to haveany chronological relationship at all to the main story These vignettesinclude the following:

 Seals are placed on the foreheads of 144,000 believers from the 12 tribes

of Israel (Rev 7:1–8)

 A “great multitude” is delivered from the Great Tribulation (Rev 7:9–17)

22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Ch.

Millennium Final Judgment New Heaven

TRUMPETS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Figure 1-4:

The primarystorylinefromRevelation1–20

 John encounters an angel and eats a little scroll (Rev 10)

 Two witnesses prophesy for 3.5 years and are then martyred (Rev 11:3–12)

 A woman and a dragon (Satan) appear, and a war in heaven occurs (Rev 12)

 A beast out of the sea and a beast out of the earth arrive (Rev 13)

 Jesus appears with 144,000 believers on Mount Zion (Rev 14:1–5)

 Three angels proclaim messages of repentance and warning (Rev 14:6–13)

 The harvest of the earth separates the believers from nonbelievers (Rev 14:11–20)

 The saga of the great prostitute on the beast (Babylon) and her eventualfall unfolds (Rev 17:1–19:3)

Figure 1-5 shows how these vignettes fit into the flow of the judgments

New beginnings (Rev 21–22:6)

The last you hear of Satan and nonbelievers is at the end of Revelation 20,when they’re thrown into the lake of fire Revelation 21, however, tells the flipside: the future that reportedly awaits those who believe in Jesus It tells ofthe “new heaven and new earth” that God will create as the permanent homefor his children But this new world is more than an improved version of theircurrent surroundings It’s a perfect world in which God will live alongsidehumans (Rev 21:3–5) See Chapter 14 for details

Epilogue (Rev 22:7–21)

John closes out Revelation with an epilogue that marks the end of the prophecy(see Chapter 15) The major refrain in this final section of the book is Jesus’sreiterating three times, “Behold, I am coming soon!” (Rev 22:7, 22:12, 22:20)

Each of these alerts precedes a call:

 Obedience: A call to “keep the words contained in this book” (22:7)

 Action: A call to act because he will “give to everyone according to what

he has done” (22:12)

 Faith: A call to believe Jesus when he says he is coming and to be able

to testify to that claim to the rest of the world (22:20)

Monitoring the Book’s Timeline

One of the biggest problems most people have with the book of Revelation is

that they expect a traditional, linear model of storytelling A linear story begins

at a particular point in time and then uses progressive scenes to move thecharacters to some sort of destination Other stories start out with the char-acters looking back at something, tell what happened in the form of a flash-back, and return to the present For the vast majority of films out of Hollywood,these two tried-and-true formulas are almost always used, primarily becausethey’re a natural way to tell a story and are easy for audiences to understand

Getting in the Spirit

As you read through Revelation, the curiousphrase “in the Spirit” may jump out at you Johnuses in the Spirit to mark the specific visions hehas when writing Revelation The Apostle Paulactually uses that same phrase in his epistles(Romans 8:9), but the way in which John usesthe term is altogether different John is referring

to the mysterious state that he’s in as he riences these visions In John’s view, Godsomehow frees him from his normal human lim-itations and enables him to tangibly experiencethese visions in his mind and spirit

expe-In the Spirit appears four times in Revelation:

1:10, 4:2, 17:3, and 21:10 Every time John uses

this phrase, he is documenting the details of one

of these four visions (see the table) Each ofthese visions “transports” John to a new geo-graphical location — the island of Patmos,heaven, a desert, and a mountaintop Johnnever clarifies whether these locations are part

of the vision he has on the island of Patmos orwhether he is somehow supernaturally beamed

to these locales

You can think of John’s in-the-Spirit experiences

as something like a four-part miniseries Eachexperience is a separate installment, buttogether, they form a cohesive storyline

1:10 Patmos Hears a loud voice Messages to the

churches4:2 Heaven Sees a throne with Judgments on a

someone sitting in it sinful world17:3 Desert wilderness Sees a woman Final victory

on a beast over evil 21:10 Mountain Sees the new A new

Jerusalem in heaven world order

However, once in while, a story comes along that — like the book of

Revelation — doesn’t fit into this storytelling model Snow Falling on Cedars and The English Patient are two prime examples Both have multiple story-

lines with flashback sequences involving different characters If you don’twant a mental workout, stories like these can be quite frustrating But if youpersevere and stick with them, you can find the increased texture worth-while, adding to the overall experience

As you read through Revelation, prepare yourself: The book of Revelationmay start out linear for several chapters, but various vignettes or interludesinterrupt the main story When you equip yourself for that reality, you’ll be in

a much better position to deal with the timing of events

As you consider the how the various pieces of the book fit together, keep inmind the following two topics: transition phrases and parallel events

And then some: Interpreting transition phrases

Revelation is littered with scores of transition phrases that imply timing Theprimary examples include “then I saw,” “and I saw,” “after this,” and “afterthese things.” Strictly speaking, these transitions may not always translate tothe order of prophetic events For example, you can find 53 instances of the

word then in the book Although some of them imply a connection between

one event and the next, others reflect the author’s technique of relaying hisstory, interweaving the content of his visions with his own experiences Inother words, the narrative has two layers:

 John’s experience of having a vision while on Patmos

 The content of the visions — horsemen ride, beasts arise, angels fight,and so on

With this kind of setup, a transition may apply to the outer layer (the order ofJohn’s visions) or to the order of prophetic events themselves For example,

suppose I were to tell you, “I saw the season finale of 24 Then I saw reruns of the rest of the episodes over the summer.” In this example, the then relates

wholly to the timing in which I saw the episodes It says nothing about thelogical order of episodes for the series

Although some transitions may be open to interpretation, you shouldn’t justdismiss all transitions, either In particular, the phrases “after this” and “afterthese things” are noteworthy Combined, these two phrases appear just sixtimes and don’t always seem to relate to the order in which John received thevisions For example, its usage in Revelation 4:1, 15:5, 18:1, and 19:1 seems to

a sequential flow of events.

The four major interpretations of Revelation and the different perspectives

on the Millennium all weigh in on the timing of events in the book SeeChapters 4 and 13 for details

Parallelism: Watching things

go down at the same time

Revelation has a flow of events, but how each section fits into the timelineisn’t always apparent Although commentators disagree on the particulars,most agree that at least a few of the portions of the book parallel each other

Perhaps the most obvious example is Revelation 12’s story of the woman inthe desert, which is told in two ways in different places in the chapter (12:6and 12:13–17) A second example, though more contested, is the 3.5-yearperiod mentioned several times throughout the book (11:3, 12:6, 12:14, and13:5) Some hold that these references indicate that the associated sectionsparallel each other

Many futurists (who believe Revelation describes real events that are going

to occur — see Chapter 4) downplay parallelism They think that, by andlarge, the book progresses in a linear fashion from beginning to end, exceptfor the vignettes (see the earlier “Judgments and vignettes” section) Otherfuturists view Revelation 1–11 and 12–19 as parallel accounts of the GreatTribulation Offering a different take, people who embrace a symbolic inter-pretation of the prophecy (once again, see Chapter 4) see up to seven parallelsections in the book

The issue of parallelism is also key factor in the interpretation of theMillennium, which appears in Revelation 20:

 Premillennialists hold that all the events from Revelation 1–19 willhappen before the Millennium

 Amillennialists see the discussion of the Millennium as a parallel sectionthat describes the entire church age; this church age goes from

before Revelation 1:1 even starts up until the Second Coming of Jesus

in Revelation 19

Chapter 13 dives into the interpretations of the Millennium

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